By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Marc Gasol returned to action Thursday in a Lakers loss to the Philadelphia 76ers after remaining off the court for nearly a month due to COVID-19.
The Lakers center opened up about his experience with the virus on a Zoom call after his first game in weeks and reflected on the impact it had on his overall health.
“It got me pretty good for five, six days. I was down, couldn’t move much. The biggest symptoms, or the worst symptoms for me, were headaches, difficulty breathing, especially when you try to move, you try to go upstairs. That’s when I realized how hard it was and how it was impacting my body and body aches, the fever and all that”, Gasol mentioned, as adapted by Los Angeles Times.
Gasol did everything right in regards to the safety precautions, though he still contracted the virus and felt enough fatigue for it to look scary. In his own words, he even “faced difficulty walking up the stairs”.
“That’s when it got serious for me. First couple of days it didn’t really affect me yet. I didn’t have any symptoms. I had a few headaches, but I’m like, ‘Well, hopefully, I’m going to be pretty much asymptomatic.’ And then when it hits you, it hits you really hard — at least for me. I just thought of my kids at that point. I didn’t want them to go through that. I didn’t want my wife to have to go through that. So, that’s why I worried about it the most”, he admits.
The experience of COVID-19 helped the Spanish big also reflect on the game itself, and set his priorities, as he also mentioned. “It puts basketball in the right place at that moment. It’s not that important. You want to be around the team, especially when you start to feel better. That’s the first thing you think about. I got a bike in the house. I got a couple of weights, so I started moving and it was challenging early on, the first couple of days moving. But that’s the first thing. As soon as you get energy, your mind and your body goes right into it, wants to get back out there and help your team.”
Finally, Gasol hopes that the vaccination process can move fast enough, so fans can eventually return to the stands. “It hasn’t changed my approach on the season, my view. I think we all understand it’s not 100% proof what we’re trying to do here and hopefully we get through the season and have as many people as possible vaccinated by the playoffs so people can come and watch the games and enjoy what we do.”